I caught a published tweet where I wrote “advanced” instead of “advantage.” I resisted banging my head on the desk when I saw the error. Chalk it up to another creative homonym mistake — an easy to miss and fix mistake. Watching for these seven mistakes and fixing ’em add power to your writing. Leaning … Read more
I admired the incredible and teachers who inspired everyone in attendance last night’s Teacher of the Year event. Attendees donned red to signal they’ve been inspired by a teacher in their lives. Each year, all the schools select one experienced teacher of the year and one beginning teacher of the year. Selected experienced teachers went beyond the … Read more
Lisa’s book, The Hungry Mirror, tells the fictional story of a woman who starves until she finds herself trapped into a seeming-sanctuary cage of addictions walled by self-hatred and filled with doubt. She discovers the value of size zero is also zero. This novel doesn’t do the typical adolescent anorexia thing. Instead, the character is … Read more
Cindy Hudson is the author of Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs (Seal Press, October 2009). She’s the founder of two long-running mother-daughter book clubs. Hudson lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two daughters. Visit her online at www.MotherDaughterBookClub.com. Liven up Your Stories with Interviews by Cindy Hudson … Read more
I’m the editor of several email newsletters. Every issue has a reader question that everyone is welcome to help and answer. Sometimes the questions stump readers, so I post it in Help a Reporter Out (HARO). Most of the time I receive dozens of replies. The latest submission had 40+ replies and only ten made … Read more
You can do more with YouTube than posting videos of bloopers and sleepwalking dogs running into walls. Creating videos and uploading them to sites like YouTube and Vimeo provide writers with the opportunity to share expertise, promote a book and connect with others. Camera shy? You don’t have to be in the video. You have … Read more
Image by Omar_MK via Flickr In looking for data to use in a story, I came across what sounded like valid data. But it wasn’t enough. The article didn’t say where the data came from. So I searched hard to see if I could find a study or some valid resource to backup the data … Read more
Image by otherthings via Flickr Many professors and writers I spoke with on this subject, and their numbers are too great to list here, all recommend the same thing: Write a draft, correct it, consider correcting it again, turn it in. Did you see those action items in the middle? Write a draft first. Know … Read more
Image via Wikipedia I did not set out to become a professional writer. Instead, serendipity had a large role to play in my career. But my choice of profession did not surprise people who’ve known me since my school and college days. They expected it all along, given that they saw me acing essays and … Read more
Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Linda Joy Myers‘ WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. About Linda Joy Myers Ph.D. She’s president of the National Association of Memoir Writers and a practicing psychotherapist. She is the author of The Power of Memoir … Read more